Xavier Musketeers are buoyant after drawing on a thrilling victory over Texas in their first four games on Wednesday.
The Musketeers look back at an eight-point deficit in a dominant second half performance, carrying that momentum in a round one tilt with Milwaukee's sixth Illinois.
Illini is a 3-point favorite at BET365 on Friday night's contest.
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Xavier vs. Illinois Betting Preview
This is fun for handicap.
Illinois is a higher species and favorite, but after opening at Illinois-4.5, the line moved towards Xavier.
This is not an unusual phenomenon. This is not an uncommon phenomenon, as the market often gathers around teams who have won the game in the first four of rounds 1.
Do you bet on college basketball?
The warning here is that Xavier's victory over Texas was part of a long string of large pictures of encouragement. The Musketeers won seven straight wins to close the regular season, then rebounded from a two-point defeat against Marquette in the Big East Tournament, putting up a strong effort against the Longhorns.
Meanwhile, Illinois has split the only two games in the Big Ten tournament, making it 3-4 in the past seven regular season contests.
Xavier vs. Illinois Pick
The market seems a little crazy here, as Xavier's form encourages.
Certainly, Illini supporters hope they will close the season in a better way, but their final four regular season losses were against Michigan State, Wisconsin and Duke, while their Big Ten tournament defeats were in the hands of Maryland.
This is the face value of the Illinois course, which played the sixth toughest schedule in the country, per Kenpom.
This seems like a good opportunity to decay a steamy team thanks to the Remency bias after the first four intense victories.
choose: Illinois-3 (bet365)
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Michael Lubov is a patient and abundant islander fan, but is a long-time for-profit sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters acquire a pool of brackets, find long shots, and learn how to win the market in mainstream and niche sports.
